All Casts

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Rajputs (from the Sanskrit tatpurusha compound rājaputra, "son of a king"), are a ruling class of Indian subcontinent and south east Asia. In the Hindustani language, those belonging to the Kshatriya/Chattari Varna of Hindus are generally referred to as "Rajputs". They rule in Indian sub-continent from 6th century to 20th century and south east Asia from 9th to 15th centuries. Nepal was the last empire of Rajputs which ended in 1950. At the time of India's independence in 1947, Rajputs ruled in the "overwhelming majority" of the princely states of Rajasthan and Saurashtra, where the largest number of princely states were found. Many Rajputs claim descent from Rama and Krishna.

Pashtuns (Pashto: پښتون Paṣ̌tun, Pax̌tun, also rendered as Pushtuns, Pakhtuns, Pukhtuns), also called Pathans (in Urdu: پٹھان and Hindi: पठान Paṭhān) or (ethnic) Afghans (in Persian: افغان; see also origin and history of the term), are an Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group with populations primarily in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, which includes Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan. The Pashtuns are typically characterized by their usage of the Pashto language and practice of Pashtunwali, a traditional set of ethics guiding individual and communal conduct. Their origin is unclear but historians have come across references to a people called Paktha (Pactyans) between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, which is speculated to be the ancestors of today's Pashtuns. Since the 3rd century AD and onward, they are mostly referred to by the name "Afghan" ("Abgan", "Avgan" or "Awgan").

Chaudhary (Hindi: चौधरी , Urdu: چودهری, Bengali: চৌধুরী) is a term in Indo-Aryan languages, literally meaning "holder of four". Traditionally, the term is used as a title indicating the ownership of ancestral land, but in contemporary usage it is often taken as a surname or title. The spelling of the word varies in different areas. In some cases it may also mean "power".

The Gujjars (or Gurjars) of Northern India, such as in the NCR region and Haryana, use Chaudhary as a surname.

Sheikh (Arabic and Punjabi: شيخ ), is an Arabic word meaning elder of a tribe, lord, Honorable revered old man, or Islamic scholar. In South Asia it is used as an ethnic title generally attributed to Muslim trading families.Punjabi sheiukh are multi races,Mostly came from persia (Iran),Central asia Turkic tribes and Arabs.

From the beginning of Muslim rule in South Asia in 713 AD, the Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis traveled from the rest of the Muslim world to the Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and settled permanently.

Malik (Arabic: ملك‎) is an Arabic word meaning "king." It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized, Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings. Malik is one of the names of Allah; "King" in the absolute sense. Alternative forms are Malek and Maalik. The female version of Malik is Malikah (Arabic: ملكة‎) (or its Persian language equivalent Malekeh), meaning "queen".